No-How Generator_Graphic by Victoria Ford
December 2025
This month marks the official end date of the 5-year NEUROLIVE interdisciplinary research project, which I've had the privilege of being Artistic Director of. At the same time, there's also a new beginning, as I now start the exciting (and daunting!) process of writing a book about the NEUROLIVE project's 5 years of artistic investigations of liveness. I'm excited to begin revisiting NEUROLIVE's collaborations with artists including Seke Chimutengwende, Jo Fong, Jia-Yu Corti and Dog Kennel Hill Project, as well as my own new work from last year Readings of what was never written.
NEUROLIVE has been a truly amazing and epic journey - huge, heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been part of this 5-year adventure with us, as artists, scientists, collaborators or audience members! Visit the NEUROLIVE website to learn about what we've been up to, including the publications of scientific results so far. You can also get an overview of the project by reading this Guardian article or listening to this podcast that NEUROLIVE Scientific Director Guido Orgs and I did with ResDance's Gemma Harman.
Recently, Katye Coe and I were in Stockholm in October for a two-week series of workshops and performances of my work No-How Generator, thanks to support from Fylkingen, Uniarts, Dansalliansen and Balettakademien. It was a really wonderful two weeks - huge thanks to Per Sacklén who generously initiated this, and to everyone who came to the workshops and performances.
I'm also happy to share a new piece of writing I've done about No-How Generator, just published in Choreographic Practices Journal, which gives a quick tour of my artistic doctoral body of research. You can find an open access version of the article here. Choreographer Peter Mills also generously invited me to record a podcast episode about No-How Generator with him, which you can listen to here.
I recently launched a new stand-alone website for No-How Generator, an online resource that shares the body of research that makes up my PhD, encompassing the choreographic work and the written thesis. The website uses the poem-like concluding words of my written thesis as a starting point for inviting you to unfurl the ideas and references that it weaves together. You can use the site to get a quick introduction to this body of research or, if you choose, you can dive deeper and spend longer with the full-length writing and choreographic work. I'd love for you to take a look! Big thanks to Victoria Ford for designing the site, and to Midlands4Cities and De Montfort University for supporting me with the one-year part-time Postdoctoral Fellowship that has made it possible.
Earlier this year, it was really exciting to perform in Jules Cunningham's work Pigeons alongside an amazing group of collaborators, as part of the opening season of Sadler's Wells East in March.
I'm also excited to continue to be part of the creation of The Last Quartet, a new work by choreographer Seke Chimutengwende. The work is performed by Seke, Temitope Ajose, Charlie Ashwell and I, alongside live music from composer Jamie McCarthy, and will premiere at The Place (London) in 2026.
I’m slowly giving a long-overdue update to this site and have recently added info about my solo installation performance Loop Atlas for the first time - please have a look.
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Thanks for visiting and warm wishes,
Matthias